Part 20 (1/2)

[Sidenote: _Indian Affection_]

The fleet arrived off Cape Oyapoco on Noveh wrote to his wife on November 17, from the mouth of the Cayenne in Guiana, the Caliana, as he calls it: 'Sweet Heart, We are yet 200enough, I hope, to perforent care at London toby his aht the Spaniards to fortify all the entrances against us If we perish, it shall be no gain for his Majesty to lose, aland hath in it' But he was not disheartened Walter was never so well, having had 'no disteood faith in Indian hearts, if not at King Ja of the Indians were a vanity; butthem All offer to obey me' Harry the Indian Chief who had lived two years in the Toith hiht roasted reat store of plantains, peccaries, casava bread, pistachio nuts, and pine apples, which tean to mend, and to have an appetite for roast peccary His creere still sickly, and rested for three weeks One of the Adventurers e a discourse in praise of Guiana It contains the orders Ralegh issued to the fleet before he left England; but the inforre Captain Peter Alley, being ill of a vertigo, was sent home in a Dutch vessel, which traded with Guiana

The narrative ith him Next year it was printed in London under the title 'Newes of Sir Walter Rauleigh froh in band and collar, and a laced velvet doublet

[Sidenote: _The new San Thoh left the Cayenne on Decele Islands, now called the Isles of Health There he organized the expedition to the Mine It was decided that he should not lead in person Fever had a second ti to venture inland, unless he reuard the river er, the lieutenant-general, also was ill George Ralegh, who previously had succeeded Piggot as serjeant-h, who nowhere has specified the exact situation, supposed the Mine was at a short distance froainst Sir Walter Ralegh_, published in the _Fortnightly Review_ in 1867, assumes it was that pointed out to Keyh, it must be remembered, Keymis heard of another froraphical relation between it and the existing Spanish settleh The toas no longer where it had stood in 1596 when Keymis heard of it The old site had been deserted at some date which cannot be fixed The coe had been effected before 1611, and that the San Thome which Captain Moate found inhabited by the Spaniards was the nen That is unlikely, both because Moate would then have identified the actual spot, and on account of Ralegh's description to the King, after his return, of the town as 'new set up within three miles of the Mine' San Thome at all events in 1618 enty to thirty inal town It was close to the bank, a group of some hundred and forty houses, 'a town of stakes, covered with leaves of trees' There is no evidence that Ralegh, who must have heard of the transplantation, knew the nen directly blocked the approach to the Mine Though, however, he was ignorant that in the circuht it probable So lish Government which had sanctioned his martial preparations The Spaniards never disseners into the American interior was a lawless trespass to be repelled by force Consequently, he provided against the contingency Four hundred soldiers and sailors were eht, co, Sshi+p, which dreelve feet of water, were left behind with Ralegh The land forces were under Walter

The landing and search for the Mine were entrusted to Keyh's Instructions to his Captains_]

Ralegh's account of his communications to his officers differs fro to the official version, he at first advised them to commence by the immediate capture of the Spanish town But, objected one of theed to have answered that he had orders by word of ing of the Mine The tale rests on the dubious testi in a desperate panic at an outburst of popular indignation after Ralegh's execution In itself it is not ih, with qualifications o at a council of war to this effect If he suggested a hostile moveht that he spoke by authority Mr Secretary Winwood, it is admitted, calculated upon a collision with the Spaniards, and even upon Ralegh's seizure of the plate-fleet He would not shrink froh's assertion, if it were his, as 'evidence of his unblushi+ng effrontery,' to whom his accounts are necessarilyJames's Court, necessarily honest In any case the point h is adainst the plan His final instructions to Keyh were that they should endeavour to reach the Mine, as he ile He bade them encamp between it and the tohich, as he believed, lay beyond Thus the soldiers would cover the miners as they worked 'If,' said he, 'you find the Mine royal, and the Spaniards begin to war upon you, you, George Ralegh, are to repel them, and to drive them as far as you can' To Keymis he said, 'If you find the Mine be not so rich asof it, and draw on a second supply, then you shall bring but a basket or two, to satisfy his Majesty that h not answerable to his Majesty's expectation' If there appeared to be many new soldiers, 'so that, without manifest peril of my son and the other captains, you cannot pass towards the Mine, then be well advised how you land For I know, a few gentlemen excepted, what a scum of men you have And I would not, for all the world, receive a blow from the Spaniards to the dishonour of our nation I myself for my weakness cannot be present Neither will the coalleons of Spain being daily expected My nephew is but a young ment that I rely You shall find me at Puncto Gallo, dead or alive And if you find not my shi+ps there, you shall find their ashes For I will fire, with the galleons, if it come to extremity; run will I never'

[Sidenote: _Departure for the Mine_]

The expedition started with a ress was slow, and accidents detained Whitney's and Wollaston's vessels The rest took three weeks to reach the Isle of Yaya, styled by Ralegh assapana The isle is opposite to the modern town of St Raphael of Barrancas Preparations had been ress Antonio de Berreo was dead His son Fernando was Governor-General of New Grenada, with authority over Guiana and Trinidad But recently Diego Palomeque de Acuna had been appointed to administer those two territories He was a relative of Gondomar A copy of the description of the fleet and its intended course, which Ralegh had been obliged to submit to James, had been sent to him from Madrid on March 19, 1617 He had repaired to San Tholish were attacked by fire fro of Deceh, they sailed past the toithout noticing it On New Year's Day, 1618, they landed, at eleven in the norant, Ralegh stated subsequently in his _Apology_, of the proximity of the settlement Their intention simply was to rest by the river, and the next day to set off for the Mine Pedro Simon, a Spanish historian of the period, differs He asserts that they landed below the town, and deliberately ainst it At all events, it cannot be questioned that the Spaniards were fully resolved to stop the advance of the expedition, whether to the Mine or elsewhere If, as Jaht to make their way to the Mine, they could not be more to blame than the Spaniards for the actual collision In fact the Spaniards struck the first blow

[Sidenote: _Death of Walter_]

They had arranged an ambuscade, and, under Geronih the Spanish force appears to have colish were thrown into confusion 'The coh, 'as weak sort as ever followed valiant leaders, were so amazed as, had not the captains and soentleed the rest, they had all been broken and cut to pieces' Ultilish drove the assailants back to the town In front of it Diego Palomeque and the main body of Spaniards were drawn up The reports of eye-witnesses on the sequel differed According to one, the pikemen who to another, they were behind, when Walter quitted them and rushed in front In the official _Declaration_ it was alleged that Walter, 'as likest to know his father's secret,' cried to the Englishmen, 'Come on, my hearts; here is the Mine that ye must expect; they that look for any other are fools' By all accounts he closed with the enemy, and Grados or Erenetta mortally wounded him His last words were: 'Go on! Lord, have mercy upon me, and prosper your enterprise' His death excited his lish stormed the itives had fortified themselves San Thome, such as it as theirs They buried Walter, and Captain Cosmor, described in a letter of March 22 to Alley by Parker as leader of the forlorn hope, in one grave, near the high altar in the Church of St Thomas On the day of the funeral the belated shi+ps of Whitney and Wollaston arrived

[Sidenote: _Failure to reach the Mine_]

Notwithstanding the loss of the town, the Spaniards uilar and Juan de Lazanna, the alcaldes, with Grados, collected the residue, and constituted a garrison for the women and children in the Isle of la Ceyva They laid wait for stray Englishmen, and cooped the main body within the town There discords broke out which George Ralegh had difficulty in pacifying Not till a week after the occupation did Keyh he coth he equipped a couple of launches In them he, Sir John Hampden, and others embarked Near la Ceyva they fell into an ambuscade Nine out of those in the first launch were killed or wounded Keyed, for h not a man afraid of responsibility, he may have shrunk froh's sickness, as well as legal disabilities, have to bear it alone Ralegh's detractors inferred froh were as incredulous of the existence of the Mine as, by his own subsequent account, had always been the King The iroundless He had, in his expedition of 1596, ascertained the authenticity of the Mine, at least to his own satisfaction, and brought hoerated its riches There is no reason to suppose that he knavishly invented stories about it The Spaniards, it is known, had worked goldidle from the mere want of Indian labourers, whoal to press So lately had the workings been discontinued that, it is said, all the best houses in San Thoed to refiners, as the tools in theive up at once, though his own vieere directed rather to colonization than toIn boats he ascended the Orinoko to its junction with the Guarico In his absence the toas repeatedly attacked English prisoners were barbarously treated Several, it is asserted, were tortured or butchered After twenty-five days it was deterether the English had lost 250 men They collected some spoil estimated as worth 40,000 reals Partly it consisted of church orna of Spain's royalty, but chiefly of tobacco Three negroes and two Indians were carried off One of the Indians acco afterwards to Guiana

[Sidenote: _At Puncto Gallo_]

Ralegh meanwhile had stationed himself at Puncto Gallo, now Point Hicacos, on the south-west of Trinidad He arrived on December 17, 1617, and there he stayed On account of currents he seeed to change his iven of the spirit of the King's _Declaration_ of Novees him not to have minded, but rather to have anticipated, the certain starvation of the returning land forces through such a removal from the fixed rendezvous He wrote to Winwood on March 21, 1618, that with five shi+ps he had daily attended the armada of Spain But he had been left in comparative tranquillity

Attacks from San Giuseppe he easily repulsed, with no more serious loss than of one sailor and a boy He aenous rarities Six days after the fight Key his 'extraordinary valour, forwardness, and constant vigour of s of the occupation of San Thome Keymis's letter was dated January 8 It arrived, it has been reckoned, on February 14 The day is believed to be fixed by the abrupt closing of Ralegh's journal After his son's death, 'hom,' he wrote to Winwood, 'all respect of this world hath taken end in me,' he had no heart to continue it With the letter Keymis despatched a parcel of scattered papers A cart-load, he n of Spain's and his Custoo Paloh's own letter to Jah is reported to have conveyed it home, and to have shown it to the Lords of the Council

[Sidenote: _Suicide of Keyments_]

On March 2 the survivors of the expedition rejoined hi failure Ralegh did not banish him from his board, as the _Declaration_ noted with a sneer; but he upbraided hi stopped short of the Mine He declared that, as Walter was killed, he should not have cared, and he did not believe Key the Mine, so the King had been satisfied, and Ralegh's reputation been saved There was no kinder or enerous leader than he His dependents and servants worshi+pped him The treatment of Keymis is the one instance in his career of harshness to a follower He would see no force in Key and the State Keymis had composed a letter of excuse to Lord Arundel, a chief proh, and asked for his approval He refused it absolutely: 'Is that,' inquired Keyy_, 'I know not'--'then, Sir, what course to take' He went away, and very soon a shot was heard Keyh sent to his cabin door, that he had fired the pistol because it had long been charged Half an hour afterwards his cabin-boy found him stabbed to the heart The pistol shot had only broken a rib, and he had finished the ith a dagger

Poor Keyh old sailor,'

no mere 'sturdy mariner,' as Mr Gardiner styles the ex-Fellow of Balliol, the writer of Latin verses, the fluent and arguinative He was fated to be as evil a genius to the leader he adored as selfish, unstable Cobhah blunders coenerous ed If the supposed es in 1603 against Ralegh, were a gloss of his own, concocted fro i threats of torture, with a noble fidelity He suffered yetvaunted the mineral riches of Guiana to enhance thehis admired chief into irretrievable ruin Not even death redeemed his memory His comrades decried him as an impostor and deceiver 'False to all men, a hateful fellow, a mere Machiavel,' Captain Parker called hih, for whom he had ventured and borne much, writes of him as an obstinate, self-willeddespair can explain, not excuse

[Sidenote: _shi+p Gossip_]

The expedition had been vexed by store to Guiana None of its objects on the Orinoko had been attained To the last it continued disappointing and disappointed; 'continually pursued with misfortunes,' wrote Beecher to Camden, 'as if to prove that God did take pleasure to confound the wisdoer of discord in his fleet A page had invented a tale that he kept in his cabin 24,200, which had led some of his crew to conspire to leave him ashore in Trinidad, and sail away But hitherto he had maintained his personal ascendency The collapse at San Thome shook the faith of his captains in him Henceforth they expected him to prefer their wisdom to his own Whitney and Wollaston planned the plunder of homeward-bound Spanish shi+ps They would have liked him to abet them They warned hiland When they could not persuade hio off by themselves At Grenada they carried their intention into effect Mr

Jones, chaplain of the Flying Chudleigh, says Ralegh authorised any captain to part if he pleased, as the aier be accomplished The chaplain may have had the offer narrated to him by a captain who desired his freedoh's views to be credible He showed the utether For this purpose he illing to let restless spirits hope for indulgence of their thirst both for spoil and for revenge by a combined atteossip, the private wishes of officers, and conjectures about their coists wove a theory that he had never meant to seek for a mine, and had always intended to seize the treasure-shi+ps He was alleged to have confessed on his return that, before theproject failed, he had proposed the capture of the fleet in the event of its failure He was said to have admitted in talk with Sir Thomas Wilson in the Tower, that, after the return fron to that effect He was said to have told them that he had a French commission which empowered hiation that, after the collapse of the expedition to San Thome, he had meant to sail for the Carib islands, and leave the land co soreat piracy His own subsequent contradiction of the issue to him of any commission from the French Crown has been represented by modern writers as a dishonest prevarication He had, it is asserted, a French coh Adh's real Project_]

Much of this indictment rests upon tainted evidence When the testihed by Ralegh's oord

At all events, for his alleged intention to have been of avail for the support of a crie it was necessary to prove some act in conformity with it None could be instanced except the San Thoht on Whether he would have e it is difficult to decide Though the rumours of the fleet, reckless words of his own, other words uttered for some very dissimilar purpose, adether, and a phrase in a heart-broken letter to his heart-broken wife, need not be accepted as conclusive, it may be conceded that they accord with his and the prevalent English teland and Spain in America were always at war 'To break peace where there is no peace,' he wrote, 'it cannot be The Spaniards give us no peace there' He stated the literal truth Spaniards treated unlicensed English voyagers to any part of South Aht of reprisals; and public opinion in England was on his side English laas not He ht have been alo-Spanish reciprocity, and in conformity with the schemes attributed to hi of the kind The projects he is known to have entertained indicate that his fancy was travelling in a different direction His original and desperate thought, after the return of the launches, had still been bounded by Guiana His as to lead a second expedition to San Tho out of Keyold ore as should satisfy the King that he had propounded no vain thing